So many crosses to bear

The new archbishop talks frankly about sex before marriage, his unorthodox background and the family tragedy that shaped his faith

The Archbishop of Canterbury in the kitchen of his new home, Lambeth Palace (Gian Paul Lozza )

At Lambeth Palace, staff are still trying to learn the most basic facts about
the man whose enthronement as Archbishop of Canterbury takes place this
Thursday. It is decided that he might like a cup of tea while undergoing the
ordeal of his first newspaper interview since his appointment, but there is
mild panic as nobody knows “how he likes it”.

This minor mystery is a metaphor for the nation as a whole. The 105th occupant
of its most senior religious office has risen almost without trace, having
been a bishop at Durham for little more than a year. Unlike the two much
more senior members of the episcopacy he leapfrogged — the Archbishop of
York, John Sentamu, and the Bishop of London, Richard Chartres —
57-year-old Justin Welby is a man whose views and even identity are little
known, other than the extraordinary fact that he used to be an oil-company